Police reportedly struggled with a man in the busy food court at Thornes Marketplace.Jeffrey Roberts

NORTHAMPTON - A Hampshire County grand jury has indicted a local man who allegedly battled police in Thornes Marketplace after he was caught with drugs in one of the store’s bathrooms.

Casey Howard, 27, of 145 Water St., was indicted for assault and battery on a police officer, resisting arrest, possession of marijuana and possession of Suboxone, a Class B substance.

According to police, an officer walked into a bathroom at Thornes on Jan. 31 to find Howard in the middle of a drug transaction. Howard fled downstairs to the food court, where it took several police officers to subdue him, police said. In the course of the struggle, a gun of some sort reportedly fell to the ground, but Howard was not indicted for any firearms offenses.